North Carolina is arguably the hotbed of Division I men’s college basketball in the United States. If you combine the historical glory of Duke University, the University of North Carolina and North Carolina State University, 13 of the last 50 national championships teams have hailed from North Carolina. Add legal sports betting to the mix and you’ve got quite an experience.
Thus, college basketball betting in the Tar Heel State is bound to be a hit. Here are the best online sportsbooks you can find to bet on college basketball.
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Best college basketball betting sites in North Carolina
Below you will find a quick look at some of our favorite North Carolina online sportsbooks to make your NCAA college basketball bets.
FanDuel Sportsbook NC
Full Review: FanDuel North Carolina
College hoops fans will find a huge variety of futures betting options at FanDuel. America’s No. 1 sportsbook allows you to bet on the National Champion, the Final Four, and the Wooden Award throughout the regular season and during the NCAA Tournament. You can also bet on the winner of each conference.
Look out for special betting options too. For example, FanDuel was taking bets on which game Caitlin Clark would score her record-breaking 3,528th career point during the 2023-24 WNCAAB season. This online sportsbook also offers a long list of pre-game and live betting options on dozens of college basketball games each week.
There are college basketball bonuses throughout the season at FanDuel, including odds boosts, profit boosts, and insurance deals. However, the promotional activity really ramps up during March Madness. FanDuel often rolls out Bet & Get bonuses, free-to-play contests, and large boosts during the NCAA Tournament, so make sure you visit the promotions page when it gets underway.
BetMGM NC Sportsbook
Full Review: BetMGM North Carolina
BetMGM is a simple, beginner-friendly online sportsbook for college hoops fans. It offers a smaller selection of NCAAB betting options than DraftKings and FanDuel on regular season games, but the odds are competitive.
This sportsbook also normally runs a $10 million March Madness challenge each year. If you can compile the perfect March Madness bracket, you will win $10 million. That is extremely difficult, so BetMGM awards $100,000 to the customer that comes closest to a perfect bracket.
There are also short-term promos throughout the NCAA Tournament. Look out for odds boosts, Bet & Get bonuses, and other offers when the madness begins.
Bet365 Sportsbook NC
Full Review: Bet365 North Carolina
Bet365 is the best NC online sportsbook for anyone interested in betting on the biggest college basketball games each week. It does not cover as many NCAAB games as DraftKings and FanDuel, but it offers a large range of markets for the most important games.
We found more than 150 betting options on a single college basketball game at Bet365, whereas many rivals offer fewer than 100. They include player props on points, assists, rebounds, threes, and milestones, plus team props, game props, half props, and alternative lines. The same game parlay builder is easy-to-use.
Bet365 also tends to offer sharper moneyline odds on NCAAB games than its rivals, according to our analysis. We found that Bet365 regularly takes a house edge of below 4%, whereas most competitors take an edge of around 4.5%. There are normally five or six odds boosts on each major college basketball game at Bet365, and it offers additional bonuses such as early payout specials and parlay boosts for college basketball bettors.
DraftKings North Carolina Sportsbook
Full Review: DraftKings North Carolina
DraftKings is the best NC sports betting app for college basketball props. You can bet over/under on player points, threes, rebounds, assists, and combos. There are also plenty of team props and game props, such as the race to X points, winning margins, and correct scores.
This sportsbook offers standard juice lines on college basketball games. You will often find -108 on one team to cover the spread and -112 on the other team. Most competitors offer -110 on either team to cover, so you can often claim market leading odds by backing the team that DraftKings has priced at -108.
There are also quick same game parlay suggestions on each NCAAB game. Alternatively, you can use the same game parlay builder to create your own bet. It is easy to create teasers and round robins on college basketball games in the DraftKings betslip too.
Caesars Sportsbook North Carolina
Full Review: Caesars North Carolina
Caesars Sportsbooks is the best source of college basketball odds boosts during the NCAA Tournament. You will find hundreds of boosted markets throughout March Madness, covering props, parlays, and same game parlays.
This online sportsbook is known for taking large bets. For example, it accepted a $1 million bet on Houston to win the NCAA Tournament from Texan furniture store owner Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale at +800 in 2023. Casual bettors can also place wagers of just $0.10 in specific markets too, so it suits all budgets.
You will earn Caesars Rewards points each time you place a bet on a college basketball game at the Caesars Sportsbook app or website. They can be redeemed for bonus bets, and you will also unlock perks at land-based casinos, such as Harrah’s Cherokee Hotel and Harrah’s Cherokee River Valley in North Carolina.
Fanatics Sportsbook North Carolina
Full Review: Fanatics North Carolina
This is a new sports betting app that launched in August 2023. That means Fanatics Sportsbook is gearing up for its first March Madness. The company has been rolling out some eye-catching bonuses in a bid to compete with established rivals like FanDuel, DraftKings, and BetMGM, so we should see some interesting college basketball bonuses when the tournament begins.
Fanatics is primarily renowned as an online retailer. The company decided to get into the sports betting business a couple of years ago, and it hired former FanDuel CEO Matt King to oversee the development of its sportsbook app.
The result is a fast and easy-to-navigate app, which focuses on providing a personalized user experience. Head to the discovery section of the app to find insights on upcoming college basketball games, odds boosts, and NCAA basketball betting promotions.
How to bet on NCAA basketball online in NC
When you’re ready to start betting with North Carolina online sportsbooks, you’re going to need to sign up for an account. The process is straightforward, and you can sign up for accounts at multiple sportsbooks (although you can only have one account per book).
Here are the steps for setting up an online account:
- Use one of our links to go to any sportsbook and claim your new player bonus.
- Click sign-up: The link or button might also say “register,” but once you click it you’ll be taken to the page where you need to enter your personal information.
- Fill out the forms: You’ll need to provide personal information like your name, date of birth, last four digits of your Social Security number, phone number, email, address, and more. This is where you’ll also enter any NC sports betting bonus code that you need for that particular sportsbook (sometimes you don’t need a code).
- Accept the terms and conditions: Every sportsbook requires you to accept these, and we recommend you read through them before you do. However, if you choose not to read them, you can always go to the sportsbook website and read through them later.
- Make your deposit: Now you need to make your first deposit into your account, and you’re ready to go. Once that is completed, you can start making bets.
Make sure to sign up for accounts only with sportsbooks that have been licensed in the state of North Carolina. Illegal sportsbooks often look legit but are capable of committing fraud and theft against customers who then have very little legal recourse.
How to read college basketball betting lines
For the uninitiated, reading NCAA basketball betting lines takes a bit of practice. Here’s what a typical basketball betting line looks like for the main bet types:
| Duke | -7.5 (-110) | -255 | Over 140.5 (-110) |
| UNC | +7.5 (-110) | +230 | Under 140.5 (-110) |
The first number to the right of the school names is the point spread, followed by the odds in parentheses. The next numbers, -255 and +230, are the moneyline odds. The final group is the totals and the odds for each.
- NCAA basketball point spread bets: Here, the University of North Carolina is the underdog at 7.5 points, which means bets on the Tar Heels will win if they lose by fewer than eight points or win the game outright. Bets on Duke pay out only if they win by eight points or more. The odds work the same way as they do for the moneyline bet.
- NCAA basketball moneyline bets: Moneyline bets can be very lopsided in college basketball, which sometimes makes it difficult to profit from the game. That said, these odds are all about which team straight-up wins. Negative odds tell you how much you need to wager in order to win $100. Positive odds tell you how much you stand to win for every $100 you bet.
- NCAA basketball totals bets: Also known as the over/under, totals bets don’t require you to pick a winner of the game. Instead, you need to determine whether the two teams’ combined points will land over or under the predicted amount. The odds work the same as they do for the moneyline bet.
Can I bet on NCAA basketball futures or props?
Prop bets are specific “side wagers” that typically focus on events that will happen during a game. Then, futures bets are focused on what is yet to come, like which team will win March Madness or a conference tournament.
Futures bets are posted well before the start of the college basketball season. In fact, some are available immediately following the end of the NCAA Tournament.
The sportsbook odds are pretty wild at that point as there isn’t nearly enough data to make more accurate predictions. But the longer you wait, the tighter the odds get. You have to decide at what point you have enough info versus the risk/reward.
Prop bets are focused on things like stats, scoring, which team leads at certain points, and more. There are both player and team props at most sportsbooks, though there are several states that have banned prop bets on college-level players.
March Madness betting in North Carolina
March Madness, officially known as the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament, is one of the most heavily bet events in the world.
There are more than 350 colleges and universities that compete in Division I basketball and 32 conferences that send their champion as an automatic bid to the tournament.
From there, the NCAA Selection Committee invites an additional 36 at-large teams to the tournament. That committee seeds the teams and determines the regions and the matchups.
Before the bracket officially gets underway, there’s the First Four to play. This single-elimination tournament is structured so there are 67 games played by the 64 teams in the field, which narrows down until the Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, and Final Four are finished. The national championship is then decided in the final game.
If you’re interested in betting on March Madness at an online North Carolina sportsbook, keep in mind that you can wager either individual games or the entire bracket, or both. You will be able to find both paid and free bracket contests at most large sportsbooks.
How is NCAAB betting different from NBA betting?
While both games are nearly identical, there are differences that matter when it comes to betting.
The NBA is full of the best players in the world, while college basketball is full of college-level players ranging wildly in talent and skill. That means there is a big difference between the worst college basketball programs and the elite, which leads to much bigger point spreads and much more lopsided moneyline odds.
The totals numbers are also going to be different because the college game is shorter, with two halves at 20 minutes each. The NBA’s regulation is four 12-minute quarters.
Sportsbook rules for NCAA basketball
Every sportsbook has its own set of “house rules” by which everyone abides. They are part of the terms and conditions you agree to when signing up for an account. You can also find them online with a quick keyword search.
Here are some of the rules that nearly every sportsbook uses, but make sure to read through those at your sportsbook, so you can see what else they dictate.
- If a game is canceled or postponed, all bets made previously on that game are called off.
- Any bets specific to a single half of play will not be settled until that half is finished.
- Bets for full-game and second-half results will include any overtime periods unless otherwise specified.
- All college basketball bets are settled using only official NCAA statistics.
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